Sister
by tvfan69
Summary: Maya is the girl who gets left, always has been. She's the victim of her situation, and she would never abandon anyone. But there are two sides to every story. And she didn't even realize until they found her that to someone she's the one who left. Now she needs to make it right. (Takes place sometime between Forgiveness Project and Goodbye)


Topanga's bakery was located in a relatively safe neighborhood of New York City, at least safe enough where it wasn't uncommon for a child to walk in unsupervised if they lived nearby. So nobody really paid much mind to it when a little girl with dirty blonde hair walked herself through the door with no trace of an adult in sight. This wasn't a place children came if they were looking to run away, nor did she appear to be even the least bit uncomfortable, so it was assumed that her parents knew she was here and no one gave her a second thought. But then as she got deeper into the bakery, about halfway through to be exact, her confident movements slowed and became increasingly frightened. Again this was normal. She didn't look like she could be any older than six, if that, and young children were normally the ones to show apprehension about approached the oh-so-much-bigger-than-them counter. So Katy, having noticed the little girl from the moment she walked in the door, smiled and tried not to stare as the child worked up the courage to approach the counter. She went on with her work of pretending to clean (the place was already spotless behind the counter but she didn't want the little kid to feel pressured to move) and eventually a little squeak of a voice was calling for her attention.

"Excuse me?" The little girl beckoned and so Katy put down her rag and leaned on her elbows over the counter, just enough to see the child.

"Hi, what can I get you?" She asked sweetly while the girl fidgeted nervously.

"Um… I'm looking for Maya Hart?" She asked and, understandably, that had Katy arching an eyebrow. Why was this little girl looking for her daughter?

Maya, who was currently sitting over on the coffee shop's little couch with Riley, also heard the odd question and turned to look at her mother and the girl.

"I'm Maya," she said, her voice matching the confusion on her face when she immediately realized that she had never seen this girl before in her life.

And that was when this little girl who nobody had paid much mind to when she'd strode into the shop did something that immediately focused everyone's attention onto her.

"SISSY!" She shouted, her little face lit brighter than the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree as she ran over to Maya and jumped into her lap.

Maya, on the other hand, just barely managed to catch the girl. She looked over the girl's shoulder at her mother for an explanation, but the older woman shrugged and gave a face that confirmed she was just as lost as her daughter.

"Maya?" it was Riley who broke the silence, her voice hitting that high pitch that it does when she doesn't understand something and begins to worry because of it.

"I don't know Riles," Maya calmly snapped, finally regaining her wits just as the little girl pulled back from the hug she had thrown herself into and looked up at her with a giggling face.

All Maya could bring herself to do was stare in shock at the little girl. She had fair skin with rosy cheeks, stormy grey eyes that looked so familiar yet they couldn't be placed in her mind, and blonde hair so dark that it would undoubtedly turn brown as she grew older.

Finally, with her arms still locked around Maya's neck, the little girl's smile fell into a frown. Apparently she was growing impatient with the teenager's lack of enthusiasm.

"It's me Maya, Audrey." She said her name as though it were supposed to mean something to Maya, and the fear creeping into her voice made it hurt Maya's heart when it didn't.

"Maya?" Riley asked again, her voice more even now.

"Maya?" Now the little girl, Audrey apparently, was asking and she was doing so with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Um…" Maya stuttered, settling her hands firmly on Audrey's back as if to use her as an anchor to the situation. "I'm sorry," she finally said, looking the little girl in the eye. "I don't… Why did you call me sissy?"

"Cause you're my sister." Audrey answered with a shrug and her words had Maya looking back over at her mother.

"Mom?" She asked but again Katy gave a rather over-exaggerated shrug.

"Don't look at me," she insisted.

"We have the same daddy." Audrey piped up, also looking over at Katy.

Once those words were out of the little girl's mouth everything clicked for Maya.

Looking at her again, this time really looking at her, Maya was able to place where she had seen those eyes before. This was her father's new family, a piece of it anyway; Audrey was his new daughter.

As if sensing that Maya had finally realized who she was, Audrey leaned back even more and watched the older girl expectantly, waiting for a reaction.

Carefully, slowly, Maya reached one hand up off Audrey's back and ran it along the back of her head, gently smoothing the younger girl's dark blonde locks as she took in her face that looked so much like their father's. Then Maya did something that, after hearing her vent her anger over her father's new family countless times, neither Riley nor Katy would've expected her to do.

She pulled Audrey back towards her and hugged her.

Audrey, on the other hand, also pulled yet another unexpected move and began audibly crying into Maya's shoulder.

"What is happening?" Riley all but shouted, the panic starting to rise in her voice again but Maya ignored her as she pulled Audrey back and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Audrey, do your parents know you're here?" She asked, noticing that there was still a distinct lack of their father or even someone who could be Audrey's mother anywhere in sight.

Sure enough Audrey shook her head.

"Ok," Maya said, slowly getting a grip on reality. "We need to call your parents then. Do you know their phone numbers?" She asked and again Audrey nodded, but instead of rattling off a phone number for either of her parents she sniffled and looked Maya in the eye.

"Why do you live so far away?" She asked in a tear-coated voice.

"What?" Maya asked, not entirely sure that she understood the question.

"You don't visit us, why… what's wrong with me?" Audrey barely had the strength to get the words out before she exploded in a full on sobbing mess right there in Maya's lap.

All Maya could think to do was pull the little girl close and rub her hand soothingly along her back as she cried. By this point the other customers were staring and so to keep the peace, and maybe also sort out her thoughts more privately, Maya picked up Audrey carried her away behind the counter and into the little back office of the shop.

She stood there in the back as Audrey cried into her shoulder, rocking her body back and forth as though it could help soothe the girl. But it was only so long before Maya began crying herself. Not nearly has hard as Audrey was, but a few tears still slipped out as the image of the younger blonde's broken face was seared into her mind; as her words played over and over again within her head.

 _"What's wrong with me?"_

Maya bit her lip to keep from full on sobbing. All this time she had been so angry at her father, so angry at his new family, she never even considered what that family might think of her. Audrey is young, too young to understand that her ever-faithful daddy abandoned his last daughter without so much as a goodbye. She's too young to understand that her half sister has spent the better part of her life broken. All she understands is that she herself is breaking. All she understands is that she has a sister who, in her mind, doesn't care enough to come around.

All Maya understands is, that to this little girl, she is the one who left.

"I'm sorry," She finally managed to choke out as she tightened her grip on Audrey. "I'm sorry," She repeated. "I didn't think you knew about me… and dad…" she trailed off, trying to find words she could say that wouldn't destroy Audrey's opinion of her father. "I need to stay with my mom," she finally settled on. Audrey was beginning to calm down at this point and so, sniffling away what was left of her own tears, Maya put her down and then crouched in front of her with her hands firmly on her shoulders. "I'm sorry," she said yet again. "There is nothing wrong with you Audrey, you didn't do anything wrong. I should've tried getting in touch with dad the day I found out he had another kid." She said firmly and then, in that moment, looking at the red face and wet eyes of the hiccupping little girl in front of her, Maya made a choice. "Now, we need to call your parents to come get you, because you need to go home and I need to stay here." She said and when Audrey squeaked as though she might cry again Maya reached out her hand out and laid it gently against the girl's cheek. "I promise you that when they get here I'll talk to them about staying in touch with you."

* * *

A little over an hour later had Kermit Hart all but racing into the bakery where he had met with his older daughter not too long ago. He was a panicked mess from having spent the entire afternoon running all around Brooklyn looking for Audrey, and nearly went into shock when his cell phone buzzed and it was Maya of all people on the other end.

"Lose something?" She had asked before she went on to tell him that Audrey had overheard him telling his wife about his trip out to Manhattan and thus the little girl decided to sneak her way onto a train to go get some answers.

But as relieved as Kermit was to have located Audrey, and as much as he wanted nothing more than to hug her and bring her home, he hung back in the bakery doorway for a minute.

There she was, his little girl, sitting contently on Maya's lap at a table and scribbling on a piece of paper with a bright pink crayon whilst Maya talked to her friend Riley. A part of him wanted this moment to last forever, but it couldn't and before he knew it Maya had spotted him and was setting Audrey onto the ground.

"Hi daddy," Audrey murmured as she walked over to him, he wasted no time getting down to her level and embracing her in a hug.

"Audrey, I was so worried!" He exclaimed before pulling back, "We're going to have a talk about this with mommy when we get home, you had us worried sick!" He scolded with far more relief in his words than anger, before Maya walked up behind Audrey and so Kermit rose to his feet.

"Maya," he said and she nodded uncomfortably.

"Father."

"Thank you," he said, a smile tugging at his lips.

"You're welcome." May replied, "And um… if it's ok with you, I'd like to call Audrey." She requested, her voice firm and even but still fearful. "Just once a week or so. Talk to her about her day, about school, her friends, maybe about Tommy." She listed, and if Kermit wasn't in shock before he definitely was now when Maya mentioned his six-month-old son. "Just whatever she wants to talk about, if it's ok with you and her mom." She finished her pitch and while Kermit was more than aware of Audrey's bright and begging eyes staring up at him his were locked with Maya.

Her eyes were serious, and yet every bit as broken as they had been that day he came here to explain himself. But yet they were also different. That day he had seen the urge to run and hide away in her eyes; today there was nothing but fierce determination. He wanted to tell her that she doesn't have to do such a thing, that she doesn't owe anything to Audrey or Tommy. But in her mind she does. His relationship with her may be strained at best, but she isn't going to let that affect her relationship with his other children, her siblings. He can see it in her fiery eyes that she wants to show him what he was supposed to be for her. That she wants to prove to him, and maybe even to herself, that she isn't him.

He already knows she isn't.

"Of course," he finally said to her with a smile that she returned, and that might have been the first real smile he's seen from her since she was Audrey's age. "Here," he said, grabbing a napkin off a nearby table and, after a minute of glancing around, approaching the counter for a pen. He scribbled something down on it and handed it to her. "Here's the number for the house, bedtime's at eight o'clock." He said as he gave the napkin to Maya before turning to Audrey. "Say goodbye squirt, we've got to get going."

"Bye sissy," Audrey said, turning around and hugging Maya's leg for a second before the teenager detached her and crouched down to give her a proper hug.

"Bye," she said softly into Audrey's ear and after another minute the little girl let go and followed Kermit out the door, waving goodbye as she went.

Maya stood there for a second or two once they were going, a small smile on her face as she walked back to her and Riley's table and reclaimed her seat.

"Are you ok?" Riley asked and Maya smiled even brighter when her eyes landed on the big pink heart that Audrey had drawn on the paper they gave her.

 _To: Sissy_

 _Love: Audrey_

 _I love you sissy!_

"Yeah," she answered her friend honestly, "I'm great."


End file.
